Sweet merciful Jesus. I'm not sure that I could have scripted the epic fuckbucket of failure that walked out of the stadium in Mobile, AL tonight. It's just a few hours old and I'm still a jumbled pile of feeling. Pissed? Sure. Disappointed? Yup. Embarrassed? Absolutely. Feeling like an Ohio State fan? A little.
As I said in our GMAC preview, BSU had to play well enough to win. That sounds simple, and almost too easy to really count as a piece of wisdom, but based on the metric tonnage of sheer awfulness that masqueraded as Ball State Football in the MAC Championship Game, that seemed to be asking a lot. As I sit here after the assthrashing is complete, it apparently was too much to request that Ball State play better than a mediocre 2A Indiana high school team.
Amidst the carnage of this 45-13 beating, Tulsa was able to pretty much do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and however they wanted. The BSU offense was stagnant, the defense was spectacularly shitty, the special teams were ordinary at best, and perhaps worst of all, this team just seemed eager to quit, shower, and get their asses out of there. Truly a shame.
I'll have a little bit better perspective tomorrow and an actual breakdown of the game itself, but this team has a lot of soul searching to do before spring practice. If Stan wants this fanbase to support him despite his quick hire, he had best stop getting his ass handed to him and looking totally and completely outcoached. If Nate wants to go to the NFL, then go. But I find it to be no coincidence that as soon as he began to mention the draft he suddenly didn't have the focus and success that he used to (and for the record, leaving now would be the worst decision possible, regardless of whatever "advice" Nate is getting from his brother Jose).
The bottom line is the clock is already rolling on 2009, and I can only hope that the underclassmen on this team are as upset as I am about ending this season the extraordinarily awful way that they did.
Harsh? Probably. But this team basically told every fan that bothered to watch them that each and every backhanded snide comment made about them was absolutely true. They played a universally regarded "good" team for what some will consider the first time all season and got the shit kicked out of them. Nate Davis fumbled his way right out of guaranteed money in the NFL like the overrated choke artist he was alleged to be. Ball State played like a joke tonight and exactly the way any small time pretender would have. They played like a team that loaded up on soft scheduling and a subpar conference. All the awful bullshit that got spewed all season long just got signed off on and roundly verified through 60 minutes of play that I'm embarrassed to say I witnessed. Congrats, boys, you just confirmed what everyone already thought.
Congrats to Tulsa, they beat our ass tonight.
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5 comments:
Can't argue with any of your post. The game was just epic frustration on so many levels.
Please tell me Mark Smith is one of the coaches heading to SDSU next week, and I'll feel better.
Tulsa fan here. Full disclosure...
I'm sorry the game was so ugly and I agree with your assessment. Ball state did not look like a good football program tonight. I watched many of your weeknight games this year and you were a very crisp team with few mistakes.
You didn't have many mistakes, but even as the announcers continued to talk about how great Nate Davis was he choked in a major way. The ground attack was going nowhere, our DBs read most of the passes, it was not good. The scramble was the best play and our defense is not known to be among the best.
I don't know your team well enough to guess if you played bad because of coaching, NFL draft chances, or if we were that much better... but Tulsa looked bigger, faster, stronger, and much more ready to play. Nate Davis destroyed whatever NFL hope he thought he had and the MAC was exposed as an overall slow conference that is in a severe down cycle.
Best of luck going forward. Ball State fans seem to be fun people (as did BG fans last year). I hope your new coach can continue the success and build on it to add a trophy to the case and a bowl win.
The worst part was waking up at 5:30 to Mrs. Edge saying, "Wow, they got killed last night." Not the best way to start your day.
The whole team looked pathetic (except our special teams). But to single one out, Nate Davis flat out choked, and Alan is right. As soon as the word "draft" got mentioned, he showed his true colors to the NFL. Nate, if you by chance have someone read this to you, get that diploma; you're going to need it.
I could pile on here, but there's no need. I'd hope they are just as disappointed in themselves as we are. After the buffalo game, I am not surprised they decided not to show up. They didn't have the heart to overcome mistakes in Detroit, why would they in Mobile....with even less to play for? I still think Nate can be a great QB, but he isn't going to get a free pass for having a learning disability in the NFL. Well, maybe. Jamarcus Russell sure did.
Damn it you beat me to it.... totally feeling like an Ohio State Fan today :-\
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